CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptpointersreferencegarbage-collection
Maximiliano Cruz
Maximiliano Cruz

Reputation: 302

How to delete all object references in Javascript?

Given the following code:

let obj = { data: 1 };
let ref1 = { data: obj };
let ref 2 = [ obj ];

How can I delete obj is such a way that it's references are also removed? (I mean that ref1.data === null && ref2.length === 0)

Is it possible?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2032

Answers (3)

Vikas
Vikas

Reputation: 7175

You can not delete all references of object. Setting obj=null will not have impact on its references. You can use delete keyword to delete properties of object.

let obj = { data: 1 };
let ref1 = { data: obj };
let ref2 = [ obj ];
delete obj; // no effect
console.log(obj.data); // still have 1
console.log(ref1.data); // still have obj value
obj=null;
console.log(obj)  //null
console.log(ref1.data)  //still have obj value

Upvotes: 0

Duncan
Duncan

Reputation: 527

Somewhere inside the javascript execution environment there is some piece of code that is keeping track of references to objects and running memory garbage collection when all the references go out of scope.

You are looking for something similar, except you want to somehow find all active references to a particular object at a particular point in time, and change that reference to null.

I don't think that's possible, unless you want to write your own javascript interpreter.

But perhaps if you back up a level and explain why you want to do this, there is a way to achieve your goal.

Upvotes: 1

Aziz.G
Aziz.G

Reputation: 3721

You can remove the property from the object: 

let obj = {
  data: 1
};
let ref1 = {
  data: obj
};
let ref2 = [obj];

delete obj.data;

console.log(obj);
console.log(ref1.data);

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions